By Ori Lewis and Nidal al-Mughrabi JERUSALEM/GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli tanks and aircraft struck militant positions in the Gaza Strip on Thursday soon after Palestinian militants fired mortar shells at an Israeli military post close to the territory, the Israeli army said. A Reuters witness in Gaza said he saw smoke rising from at least two targets struck by Israel, one belonging to Hamas and another to Islamic Jihad militants. Witnesses in the southern Gaza Strip said two Islamic Jihad posts was hit there.

US President Donald Trump condemned as "horrible and cowardly" a bomb and gun attack Friday that killed more than 200 people at a mosque in Egypt and called his counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to offer condolences. A bomb explosion tore through the Rawda mosque in Egypt's restive North Sinai province, and then armed attackers raked fleeing worshipers with gunfire. The mosque, located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish, was frequented by Sufis, considered heretics by the Islamic State group and other Islamists.

Venezuela on Tuesday arrested the acting president and five other top executives in charge of Citgo, the US refinery subsidiary of troubled state oil company PDVSA, on corruption charges. "Six senior executives have been arrested," said chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab, adding that the charges included embezzlement, collusion over contracts, money laundering and criminal association. The Citgo chief, Jose Angel Pereira, was arrested in Caracas.

By Dmitry Solovyov MOSCOW (Reuters) - Armed men in masks blocked off the center of Ukraine's rebel-controlled city of Luhansk on Wednesday in what the rebel leader said was a revolt by supporters of a sacked regional police chief. In fighting that broke out in 2014, Russian-backed rebels threw off rule by a new pro-Western leadership in Kiev and set up two self-proclaimed separatist statelets in eastern Ukraine, one centred around Luhansk and another around the city of Donetsk. The tension in Luhansk on Tuesday did not appear to have any direct connection to the conflict between the rebels and Ukraine's government.

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe resigns Wild jubilation among MPs as speaker tells parliament Comes one week after military coup How Mugabe brought Zimbabwe's economy to its knees Who are Robert Mugabe's indulged children? ​ Mugabe denied his people freedom and prosperity Robert Mugabe's fall is an opportunity for Zimbabwe​ Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe resigned on Tuesday, bringing to an end 37 years in power which he began as a hero of the struggle against white rule and ended as the man blamed for reducing his country to despotism and economic misery. The streets of Harare erupted in celebration after Mr Mugabe's resignation was announced during a joint session of...

BEIRUT/PARIS (Reuters) - France can play a productive role in the Middle East by taking a "realistic and impartial approach", Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in a phone call on Tuesday, according to Iranian state media. Tensions between Iran and France increased last week after Macron said that Tehran should be less aggressive in the region and should clarify its ballistic missile program.

Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein used lengthy nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) attached to hefty monetary settlements to prevent accusers from coming forward with reports of his alleged serial sexual predation, as detailed in a new story from The New Yorker's Ronan Farrow published on Tuesday.

Outspoken basketball dad LaVar Ball questioned the extent of President Donald Trump's involvement in securing his son's release from the custody of Chinese authorities during a combative 20-minute CNN interview on Monday night.

NEW DELHI (AP) - A member of India's Hindu nationalist ruling party offered 100 million rupees ($1.5 million) to anyone who beheads the lead actress and the director of an unreleased Bollywood film "Padmavati" rumored to depict a relationship between a Hindu queen and a Muslim ruler.

The mother of a gunman who shot 14 people, killing four, said he called her the day before the rampage in Northern California to say he was weary of constant feuding with his neighbors and felt like he "was on a cliff and there's nowhere to go."

A unit of healthcare conglomerate Johnson & Johnson has dropped a lawsuit it filed to block a copy of its rheumatoid arthritis drug Remicade produced by South Korea's Samsung Bioepis Co Ltd from being sold in the United States. Janssen Biotech Inc, in a document to the U.S. District Court of New Jersey dated Friday and seen by Reuters, voluntarily dismissed its suit to block Samsung Bioepis' biosimilar of Remicade from sale. Remicade is Johnson & Johnson's biggest selling drug, with U.S. sales of about $5 billion a year.

A fifth woman on Monday accused Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct, claiming he assaulted her when she was a teenager, as the evangelical conservative came under mounting party pressure to quit the Alabama election. Nelson, who is now a 55-year-old businesswoman in Alabama, told reporters in New York that Moore, a regular in the restaurant where she worked, one night offered to drive her home after she finished her shift. Moore then groped her and squeezed her neck, attempting to force her head onto his crotch, she said, reading from a prepared statement alongside celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who has represented women who accused felled Hollywood mogul Harvey...

By Angus McDowall BEIRUT (Reuters) - Nothing so encapsulated the political shackles in which Saad al-Hariri has operated as Lebanon's prime minister as the way he resigned in a televised statement made from Saudi Arabia. The dependence of their leaders on powerful external patrons is nothing new in Lebanon, where regional powers from Saudi Arabia to Iran have long tussled for geopolitical advantage. In an interview on Sunday, he said he will return to Lebanon in the coming days and might reconsider his resignation.

WASHINGTON ― Even as Roy Moore's campaign for Senate in Alabama has been rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct against him, many of the candidate's most fervent supporters aren't ready to abandon ship. A group of over 50 pastors, who endorsed Moore in August, published a letter Monday renewing their support for his campaign. "Roy Moore has been an immovable rock in the culture wars," the letter, posted by Moore's wife and later published on AL.com, read.